The Chosen Nation

14Jan10

This map was published some days ago by Szabolcs Sándor here and here. As it can be seen from the comments he got in English, there were some people who didn’t like that someone’s making a funny map using by the way mostly well-known stereotypes. He didn’t receive so many nice comments from Hungarian readers either, but of course there were more from the “chosen nation” who understood that it was just a joke. At some parts a joke that hurts and makes people sad, at others a joke which is 100% funny.

I don’t know if it was he who made the map, but I have to admit that this map is quite accurate in showing what main characteristics come to the mind of a Hungarian when thinking about countries in Europe. Some of my friends raised the question whether the author of the map was someone in the field of international relations/studies, because even if for some countries he used the simplest stereotypes, he sophisticatedly marked UN troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina, indeed followed the way of gas down to Central and Eastern Europe from Russia through Ukraine.

Probably some parts should be made clear, or a bit unfolded.

“Gyros” for Greece and “Döner Kebab” for Turkey. As far as I know in Central and Eastern Europe, it’s only in Hungary where one will never see the word “shawarma“, even if they sell that under the mentioned other names on every corner.

The “Hungarians” around Hungary meant to point at the Hungarian ethnic groups remained in the neighbouring countries after the Trianon Treaty.

Finland and Estonia are marked as “relatives” because Hungarian and the mentioned two are Finno-Ugric languages. Language (and drinking) relatives. The next video about Europe according to Estonians is also referring to this by saying: “This is the place where we have some more Estonians, but they decided to call themselves Hungarians for some reason.”

Ekint had searched their office after the head of the prime minister's office claimed Hungarian-American businessman George Soros is manipulating the country's politics through organizations funded by him.